


a kinder world

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Future Fic, Mission Fic, Romance, on the field together, skoulsonfest2k16redux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 18:18:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7518332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy knows Talbot is using her.</p>
<p>Skoulson RomFest 2k16 Redux - prompt: A.C.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a kinder world

“Where’s Coulson?” she asks.

Talbot has been circling her cell like a shark - though she is the one treated like a dangerous animal. Waiting for her to wake up.

This is the longest she’s slept in seven months and it had to be chemically induced. She thinks it means something.

Her head is still ringing from whatever they gave her two days ago, but what she can’t forget is the image of Coulson, handcuffed and pressed against the hood of the SVU, looking at her like he had failed her.

“Much like you, Mister Coulson is in a cell,” Talbot replies.

Mister. Not Agent. 

She only half-listens to whatever Talbot is saying to her right now, but he’s probably just merely reading out a list of her crimes, and Coulson’s crimes. She looks around, calculating her chances. She could probably make it out of the container easily, but the place - she guesses she’s in the Playground, reappropriated by the ATCU mere days after she left - must be full of security, agents she could probably get past but she doesn’t want to hurt anybody, at least until she knows her other options.

Talbot must be thinking about it, too, the impossibility to really contain Quake.

“I come here with a proposal,” the man says. Daisy arches an eyebrow, curious. Talbot sounds almost humble, which means he needs something from her. “Work for me.”

Oh, she gets it now. The slight panic in the guy’s eyes.

That explains why they are not trying to restrain her with further sedation. They need her healthy and awake.

It’s one of those situations.

“I’ve seen how this goes, and okay, but I’m going to need Nicholas Cage to get your men out of Alcatraz.”

Talbot blinks at her.

“No, wait, it’s more like those Godzilla movies where the humans need Godzilla to protect them from some other monster, someone worse, like Gamera,” she tries again.

“I don’t like movies,” Talbot says.

Well, that explains a lot.

She crosses her arms, approaching the glass, defiant.

“So now you have an Inhuman out of control, and unlike me he’s really dangerous.”

“Not an Inhuman,” Talbot says.

That gets her interest.

“It’s someone you have already gone against…” he says, showing her the light brown folder he’s been holding all this time. “Someone you’ve already taken care of in the past.”

“Someone I’ve already killed…” Daisy mutters when she reads Donnie Gill’s name on top of the file.

 

+

 

The place has been stripped away, her old home turned into a hub of anti-Inhuman security measures. Most everyone she knew gone. New tech, new decoration, the veneer of shared history of the old SSR base gone too.

Talbot has assigned her four security guards and she’s pretty sure they have orders to come with her into the cell but an angry look from Daisy Johnson, dangerous fugitive, fells their intentions and they stay back as she opens the door to one of the vaults.

Coulson lifts his head, clearly not expecting her visit. He makes a sighing noise like he’s not entirely sure she’s real.

But he’s real and despite the tired expression and the stubble he looks healthy and well. Unexpected joy travels through Daisy’s body, the warmest feeling she’s experienced in months.

“Hey,” she says.

He gets up and she can see him clearer now.

She saw his face two days ago, when he tried to stop a team of ATCU agents he was supposed to collaborate with from catching the infamous Quake. She saw his face two days ago but this was the first time she has time to look at his face in seven months. She has seen him, at the edge of her vision and the edge of photographs. There he was, always looking for her, looking at her. The difference was that he didn’t know he was being watched.

Coulson comes closer, as close as his prison allows him - Daisy remembers Ward, advancing through a space like this, and how each step he took towards her made something in her stomach coil in fear and disgust. She feels the opposite now. The wall between them doesn’t make her feel safer, she wants it gone.

His eyes move across Daisy’s face, checking for signs of injury.

His voice is small (unlike two days ago, Daisy remembers him _screaming_ her name).

“I didn’t know if you were-?”

“Okay? I’m fine,” she tells him.

“Good.”

“I’m sorry I got you in here,” she says, looking around at the high density laser field, “If you hadn’t help me-”

Coulson shakes his head, doesn’t let her finish.

It had been fine all these months on her own, she didn’t have anyone she needed to apologize to, she didn’t have anyone she could get into trouble.

“But I’m working on getting you out,” she tells him. 

“What does that mean?” he asks.

It means that...

She has to fix this.

 

+

 

“You don’t have to do this,” Coulson tells her, talking as if Talbot wasn’t present, grabbing her arm gently - Daisy has missed this more than she cares to admit, Coulson’s concern, his fingers so careful over the fabric of her top. “He’s using you.”

Daisy looks at Talbot. “I know. That’s why I have some conditions.”

She can’t let innocents get hurt if she can somehow help the situation, but she still has a mission, and she has some debts to pay first.

“I imagined, “ Talbot remarks, almost companionable. It’s not entirely his fault, Daisy realizes, but she is beyond the point where she can forgive ignorance and compromise.

“I go in alone,” she says. Coulson is about to protest. “But I pick my team. Coulson and Mack are my backup, none of your men intervene. I don’t know them, I don’t trust them.”

“I’m afraid Mr Coulson is currently detained because of his collaboration with known criminals,” Talbot replies, dry.

Daisy smiles at the opening he just served in a silver plate, mixed metaphors or not.

“That’s another condition,” she warns.

Coulson tries to interrupt, aware of what she’s about to propose, but she shuts him up with a hand gesture.

“The ATCU will acquit _Agent_ Coulson of any _alleged_ collaboration with criminals, and you will reinstate him to his former position on the agency,” she says, then looks at Coulson, hesitating. “I mean, if that’s what he wants.”

Coulson nods, but doesn’t look that convinced either. If Daisy still knows him as well as she did once this job on the ATCU can’t have been easy on him, but Coulson is the kind of guy who wants to change things from the inside, rather than fight the system as an outsider like Daisy. She wonders if he could, maybe, be an outsider.

Talbot taps his fingers against the file, “Okay, fine, that can be arranged.”

“And one more thing.”

“What kind of business am I running here?” Talbot complains, looking around.

“You’re in the business of lies and fear,” Daisy declares. “That’s why you’re going to tell the truth now.”

“What do you mean? What does she mean?” he asks Coulson, sounding weary.

Coulson gestures for him to look at Daisy.

“You’re going to tell the truth,” she says. “I’ll have your word that you’ll tell the press Donnie is not an Inhuman, And when I fix this mess for you you’ll tell the press it was an Inhuman who saved everybody from the big bad human.”

Talbot gives her a look. “I see what you’re doing.”

“I’m not being subtle,” Daisy says. Then she turns to Coulson. “Where’s Mack? Do you have a mission suit I can change into?”

Without missing a beat he leads the way, as if he wasn’t in handcuffs a few minutes ago.

“Follow me,” he tells her. “Mack is on his way.”

 

+

 

She’s missed this, Coulson’s careful fingers searching the damage, and having someone have her back. Ever since she had met him four years ago she had had that - the feeling of not being alone. Until she threw it away.

“Don’t move,” Coulson tells her, applying the heat pack to her wrist.

She lets out a little moan of relief when she feels her skin start to warm up. The first round had ended up in a tie, with Donnie suitable shocked to discover Daisy’s powers and the way they affect his. Strategic retreat for both as Daisy catches her breath.

“He’s going to the roof,” Coulson tells her.

Daisy closes her eyes a moment. Coulson takes her other hand in his, repeats the gesture. She tries to close her fingers around the chemical warmth.

“Did Mack get the hostages out?” she asks Coulson. “My comms froze, pun absolutely intended.”

“They’re safe.”

She nods.

“Then I can finish this.”

She doesn’t want to leave this tiny corner hidden behind the staircase, or abandon Coulson’s tender ministrations. But that was what she promised herself seven months ago: never run from a fight, even if it meant running away from the things she loved.

“You might have to kill him,” Coulson says.

“Believe me, it’s not like I’m holding back,” she replies. He stares back at her and Daisy surprises herself by missing _this_. Coulson would never show her up but she could always see it in his eyes, that her usual crap can’t work on him, that he knows her too well for that. She shakes her head. “You know? I miss the days when the hardest call I had to make was taking a shot at a nineteen year old boy to save my team.”

He moves his fingers across the back of her hand, warming me up her skin.

“You do what you have to do to protect people,” he says.

She nods.

 

+

 

She does what she has to do, but in the end no one dies.

It’s weird, after so much death, to be spared this time. It’s strange, to be so willing to kill, and not having to. Daisy didn’t expect anything in her life to be _kind_ anymore. Maybe she was wrong.

When she comes out of the building and give Donnie up to the ATCU the street outside the building is swarming with people. Press, the curious, the freed hostages being led to safety by Mack like he’s a mother hen leading his chicks.

She struggles to find Coulson in the commotion - apparently the press is still catching up with the fact that she, unassuming even in the dark field suit, is the fabled Quake of their fear-mongering headlines, so she goes more or less unnoticed - while dozens of people look around, seemingly confused about what they’re doing here exactly.

Coulson hands her one of the heat packs. The last battle must be showing on her face. “Thanks,” she says, pressing the warmth against her cheek and neck, where Donnie got closer to doing some damage.

“What’s going on here?” she asks him, gesturing towards the unusual concentration of people. She thought discretion was the ATCU’s priority when it came to powered attacks.

“You’ll see,” Coulson says, flashing her a mysterious smile that wrong-foots her (is this what it feels like, to be in a team with him again? she had forgotten how much she liked it). She’s about to ask what he means when he makes a gesture with his neck, telling her to look ahead.

General Talbot is approaches.

He doesn’t look happy.

“Coulson.”

“ _Agent_ Coulson, I believe,” Daisy corrects him while Coulson looks on, delighted. She is not expecting official thanks for her job here but at least she can have some fun.

The head of the ATCU ignores her.

“What are all these journalists doing here?” he asks, exasperated, and his suspicions trigger Daisy’s. “This was a top secret mission.”

Coulson shrugs, and Daisy almost has to laugh at his beautificious expression.

“Someone must have tipped them off,” he offers.

Talbot gives him and skeptical glance and Daisy swears she sees the moustache shake in anger.

“Let me guess. The same someone who failed to inform my men of Quake appearances in time? The same one that waited those seconds extra?”

Coulson bats his eyelashes. “Might be.”

The same one who is now winking at Daisy as one of the cameramen swarming around pushes into her and pushes her away from the scene. Talbot seems too engrossed in his argument with Coulson to notice how the dangerous criminal Quake is being led away from the scene.

“Don’t look back,” the cameraman says, grabbing her arm. “We have a small window here.”

Daisy recognizes the voice. “Mike?”

“Coulson said Quake might need an extraction. I’m honored,” he tells her in his usual deadpan tone.

“The honor is all mine,” Daisy replies, holding on to Mike Peterson as they make their way out of the street.

By the time Talbot and the ATCU realize the infamous Quake was nowhere to be seen it was already too late.

 

+

 

She has to wait for him for hours, which means Talbot probably grilled him and good.

But eventually he shows up, which means Talbot kept his promise and didn’t lock him up again.

“You have any idea the kind of strings I had to pull to ensure your escape?” he says while his room is still in the dark. 

“Mike says hi, by the way.”

Coulson comes closer and switches the little lamp on his desk on, taking a long, paranoid look at the street outside. Daisy smiles when he can’t see her, behind him, she’s not that worried anymore. Not to the point of the fear always there in the pit of her stomach, when she had somehow convinced herself that getting caught was the worst thing that could happen. Well, she got caught. The world didn’t end. And now she is here in Coulson’s room.

He looks at her with confusion. After months and months of slipping away, of not allowing him anything other than faint traces of her like ghosts on security tapes and cut-up newspaper items. No wonder he’s confused. Maybe it’s just the adrenaline and the triumph of tonight which gives her this feeling of peace.

“Why did you come back?” he asks. “It’s not safe here.”

He seems spooked, like the memory of having to watch as a squad of ATCU agents reduced her is too recent to risk it.

But Daisy knows all about risk these days, and she knows this is worth it.

“When did you contact the press?” she asks.

“Before we got into the building,” he replies.

She frowns.

“How did you know everything would turn out okay? That I could handle Donnie?”

Coulson gives her a soft look. “I just knew.”

His faith seems incongruous, after so many painful things she couldn’t stop for him.

“Daisy. Why did you come back here?” he asks her again.

She avoids his gaze for a moment, dropping her gaze to the mess of papers on his desk.

“I wasn’t just going to leave without seeing you again,” she tells him. “I made a mistake last time.”

She half expects him to be angry or bitter about how she left seven months ago. He has every right, doesn’t he? If he was angry then she could apologize, fix it.

“Good, I appreciate it,” he says, nodding, “but you need to think about hiding.”

“Yes, but hiding is not everything,” she says, resolved.

Not anymore.

She wraps her arms around Coulson’s neck - he freezes a moment, surprised, making Daisy remember the very first time she hugged him, in what she feels was another lifetime.

“Maybe I can come back… eventually,” she says, burying her face in Coulson’s neck. “Strike up a proper deal with Talbot.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Coulson mutters, hugging her.

“Get my team back…”

“I’m sure everyone will be happy about that.”

And he means it.

She turns her face, brushing her lips against Coulson’s. She didn’t come into his flat tonight thinking about doing this, but she _didn’t_ not come here tonight thinking about doing this either. She reaches to kiss him properly now, insinuating her tongue between his lips for a second.

Coulson grabs her by the arms and stops her.

“Daisy, if this is some kind of show of gratitude or…”

She pulls away a bit, her fingers loosely hanging onto his shoulders.

“You think I would do that?” she asks.

Coulson lifts his hand to her cheek, stroking her gently, and he sighs sadly.

“Yes, you would,” he says.

And he’s right, and it means he knows her in a way that scares her to her core. In a way no one has before.

“Well, I’m not,” she tells him. “Not this time.”

She kisses him again. This time he’s more responsive, trusting that she means it. Trusting her. She tries to kiss him like she knows what she’s doing, but this is Coulson, if someone would know that she has no idea what she’s doing, that’s him.

Daisy scoops his face in her hands, feeling the roughness of the stubble against her palms. He clutches the back of her jacket in his fingers, holding on tighter than he probably means to, and she guesses that’s months of desperately searching for her. It makes her happy somehow. Someone holding on to her that tight, like she was precious enough.

She backs them up towards the small bed and they sit on the edge, awkwardly repositioning their bodies in the blind, just so they don’t have to stop kissing. There’s a rhythm to it now, and the beginning of a possible familiarity. She takes her jacket off, and gets out of her heavy boots. She grabs Coulson’s hand and brings it up to her thigh.

“Daisy, wait…”

She runs her lips along the line of his jaw.

“But I don’t want to wait…” she whispers in his ear, hoping it sounds sexy.

She grabs his wrists and pushes him against the mattress, pinning her body with hers. She can feel the tension in his stomach, how his body breathes heavy against hers. She fears the gesture might be too aggressive - how should she even behave with someone like Coulson? she has no idea, and it’s not like it’s a question she ever thought she’d have to ask herself - but then he arches his body to have better access to her mouth, starting the kiss again.

“Me neither, it’s just…” he winces. “Talbot arrested me before laundry day, and I’m afraid the sheets are not exactly clean.”

Daisy wants to laugh at his mundane concerns. It makes her realize she loves him, because she wouldn’t care if they had sex in the dirtiest corner of the city, as long as she got to be with him. She wants to laugh, realizing that.

“I don’t mind,” she says.

“You should,” he says, smiling into her mouth. “You deserve clean sheets.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.”

“Tell me that’s not true,” he pleads, genuinely saddened by the idea.

It is - Daisy feels a bit bad about admitting this, like she is being disloyal but it’s true. Coulson doesn’t need to be thinking about that right now, though, so she kisses him hard and slips her hands under his clothes. She doesn’t need to be thinking about that, either.

 

+

 

Afterwards they catch their breath, on their backs, on the bed, and Daisy wonders how Coulson would live in this depressing place for so long. She has lived in worse places, but that’s her, Coulson should have better, nicer things.

She slaps his bare shoulder gently. She has covered herself with the not-clean-enough-for-her-apparently sheets (she’s modest and shy and untrusting of her own body once the deed is done) but Coulson seems to have no problem with nudity.

“See? I told you we made a good team, A.C.” she says, all post-sex bravado, because Coulson is different, but she can’t be, not yet.

He turns his head and narrows his eyes at her.

“ _A.C._ That’s back?” he asks, sounding amused.

“Well, you have been demoted,” Daisy reminds him, voice treading the fine line between teasing and _it was my fault_.

“Yes, I have,” he admits, looking at the ceiling. “It’s not so bad.”

Daisy likes his tone. Post-sex Coulson is pretty chill. Maybe he can teach her.

She looks up as well, at the same spot in the ceiling he is gazing at.

“I liked Agent Coulson better anyway,” she says.

“You did?”

She smiles, remembering. “He flirted with me.”

“He didn’t,” Coulson is quick to argue. “I mean, _I_ didn’t.”

“Yeah you did.”

He turns on his side, facing her now, a bit agitated.

“I didn’t mean to, Sk- Daisy. Don’t joke, you know that’s not what I… you know I would never…”

She turns on her side as well, until they are face to face, bodies perfectly aligned despite differences.

“Yes, I know you would never,” she agrees, seriously, taking his face in her hands and kissing his brow, his eyelids, his cheeks. “But I’m glad I would.”

His expression relaxes.

“Me too,” he confesses.


End file.
